CoastersRZ

No, there will be no sled ride through Action Zone and Coney Mall. Those areas of the park will be closed (with the exception of Bubba Gump`s at the entrance to Coney Mall.)

But what happens if the park decides to not open one evening due to snow emergencies? Would everyone who bought tickets in advance be out of luck? Or will PKI comp them tickets to attend on another evening? I know at the final ride of the season on The Beast, Jeff Siebert said they have preventative measures in place to treat the midways before snow is forecasted to melt the snow and ice as it falls, in addition to the regular snow and salt methods. Although he did say that if there were snow emergencies in the surrounding communities and traveling was to treacherous for employees and the guests, that they would not even try to open.

True. They have their reasons. I`m sure if crowds are light on weekdays, they might change it for future Winterfests. (Look what they eventually did with FearFest). I`m thinking that part of the reason why they are pushing the advanced ticket sales, is so that they can help offset the huge upfront costs of all the decorations. And to guage what the particularly busy nights will be to adjust their staffing.

Yes, the new look on the website is pretty good! The links on the homepage now work for me too, and I am using Safari on my Mac.

The reason that they are charging pass holders for admission is the same reason that sell outs are being discussed. The park does not want huge amounts of crowds in the park, and thus hindering the experience of those attending. The cost for season pass holders is to prevent all the thousans of pass holders from inundating the park and making for long lines. Keep in mind that not all of the park is open. This is the same reason why they may close the gates at certain days if they reach capacity. They want the experience to be good for all attending.

Speaking of the lights on the Eiffel Tower.... I captured this image from WCPO Channel 9`s webcam that is situated atop the roof of the Action FX Theater. I grabbed the image at about quarter till 7 on Thursday evening (the 10th of November). As you can see, and as Shman has stated, they are in fact testing the lights on the Eiffel Tower Christmas tree. Click here for Channel 9`s Kings Island webcam. (It was loading really slow for me, and I have Broadband).

Yes, I feel the second hand smoke issues are overblown too. Like those commercials that liken it to being locked in a closed school building suffocating. I mean come on! While PKI was trying to do a good thing, their biggest fault is lack of avdertisement for the policy. It is only mentioned int he fine print of the park map, and at the designated areas. Other than that there are no formal reminders to guests other than occasional reminders on the PA system. Unlike at Holiday World where they have several banners proclaiming the regulation. I don`t have a problem with people smoking on the midways at PKI. It is when I am stuck in line by a smoker that I have a problem. Simply because of the fact that can`t they wait until their out of line to smoke, when there not in close proximity to a bunch of people? Ryan, you stated it very well in your post!

Well, Jeff Siebert did not come out and say that it was a Zamperla Disk-O. He said that it was similar to the Zamperla Disk-O coaster that had been discussed on Coasterbuzz. He said that renderings of that ride and the rest of NIck Universe would be released in January at Enthusiast events such as No Coast Con and East Coaster.

Actually, there are webcams around Cincinnati that you can control. There is one down on Fountain Square and one in the Museum Center at Union Terminal. I forget the URL right now. Would be cool if they did the same thing at PKI.

So the ice rink will feature real ice, and not the synthetic ice? That sounds excellent! I`m getting more and more excited for Winterfest. I`m sure things are at a frantic pace inside the park as they rush to finish all the set up in time.

Don`t worry the lights on the rooflilnes of the International Street buildings will be back, at least for Winterfest.

My educated guess would be that they will add Christmas decorations and lights to the ride. Nothing too extravagent. But a change from the normal Scooby Doo and the Haunted Castle, nonetheless.

I believe that they will have the Skyline on IStreet open. In fact, I think they opened up the Skyline on IStreet so that there would be a Skyline with indoor seating for Winterfest.

I am looking forward to returning to PKI in the glow of the winter lights! The preparations the park has been making look awesome. Hopefully, the new reincarnated Winterfest will be better than its predecessor! And hopefully it will be here for years to come. Shaggy, FearFest this year was pretty well attended, especially on Saturday nights. Friday night crowds were a little on the light side in comparison to Saturday. Jeff Siebert mentioned before the final ride on The Beast of the season that FearFest will get a "jolt" next season with even more atmosphere theming added.

I haven`t heard when Charles Jaques book is due out. When it comes out, it will be a must have book for any Kings Island fan. The Coney Island book was excellent! I read the entire book from cover to cover within a couple of days of reading it. It provided some useful answers to questions that guests would ask (primarily how old is Lake Como). (It was created in 1893 on land bought from John Wettland for $5,000.) Italian Chef, aka Charles Infosino, might know more about when it is coming out. I will definantly get it when it comes out though!

I doubt Vortex will be going anywhere soon. That being said, I think the park may have big plans for the 2007 season.

There is not really that much room behind Footlong Express. It is straddled by the entrance and exit ramps of WWC. And behind that are the train tracks and the bridge for WWC`s entrance and exit. If any restaurant is rethemed into a Nick Cafe, I would anticipate it being Wings or one of the existing HB eateries.

Yes. I second Ryan`s comments. Thanks for all those ride ops and other PKI employees who suffered through long hours in the heat dealing with rude, obnoxious and inconsiderate guests! Also, thanks to PKI for giving us the opportunity to partake in awesome event like Beast Bash, the daily walkback to The Beast and even the multiple last rides of the year on The Beast! Your marketing team and guest relations staff does a wondferful job at making us enthusiasts feel welcomed! Thanks to Dan, Dane, Ryan, Bill and all the other administrators on this site for keeping it up and running with as little clutter as possible. I know how long it takes to build a website, and the countless hours you have invested into this site (not to mention the countless hours spent at the park filming video or taking pictures for this site)

I highly doubt that that is true. Afterall, the nearest park with a B&M is SFKK. And besides, if PKI was willing to fork up the money for a B&M, I`m sure B&M would sell them one. I doubt that any park has exclusitivity rights on ALL B&M coaster in the PKI area. While one park or another may have some sort of exclusitivity rights for a certain B&M ride, I doubt it applies to all their models.

Actually, didn`t he say some of it was given to the Cincinnati Zoo? I heard him mention something like there have been 25 semi trucks arrive at the park this week with decorations for Winterfest. A couple of updates about Winterfest. The nightly parade will begin at 7:30 and start back by The Beast entrance, work its way next to Swan Lake and by the Eiffel Tower, before ending in Nickelodeon Central. It will feature all new floats, similar to the ones used in the Nick Parade. The festive banners that have returned to the Festhaus will stick around next season in the non-Winterfest portion (minus the holiday lights and theming). The large Q-TV screens in the Festhaus are gone for good.

No, I didn`t see a little kid with a video camera. I saw a person filming in the Festhaus, but it was an older guy.

As expected the crowds showed up at the park today. The lines weren`t that bad until around 12, but then they started to grow. I walked through HB land (which was a zoo!) and ran into ZosoBeast and his kids. I left the park around 2 due to the lines. Although I got quite a lot of rides in, including a ride on Drop Zone, Face Off, two on The Beast and several other rides. As expected most of the FearFest stuff is gone, with the only hint of it being the remnants of Massacre Manor and the facade of Fear Street. The train was closed today, presumably because it is undergoing its Winterfest transformation. They were installing handrails for the ice rink today, and there are lights on the fountain pedestals now. In addition, the park has added lots of garland and wreaths to the buildings on International Street. The garland has white lights laced throughout it. Also, they have done more work on light show on Swan Lake. They added mulch for a viewing area for the show as well as trimmed several of the trees for a better view, and added speakers for the soud track. You can check out my website for some picture I took today of the WinterFest preparations.

Yikes!!! Start the rain dancing now to let it rain to hopefully scare some of the crowds away.

Each person that recieved the newsletter is limited to eight (8) free tickets. Hopefully (but I doubt it) the weather will keep some people away. Expect insanely long lines at the park!

Yep, there are images on here. Der Spinning Keggers 1 Der Spinning Keggers from the Eiffel Tower